Advice in Bonusly
Great feedback doesn't wait for annual reviews — it happens in everyday moments between people who trust each other.
Advice helps you share clear, constructive input that supports growth and performance. It's a simple, private way to exchange thoughtful insights with coworkers and managers.
Getting Started with Advice
The fastest way to get started is from the main giving module at the top of your homepage.
To give or request advice from the feed:
Head to your homepage and click "Advice." From there, you can ask for advice from anyone or (if you're a manager) give advice to your direct reports. Write your message, select a coworker, and send.
Advice is always private. Receivers can choose to share completed feedback with their manager.
To access all your advice in one place:
From the Bonusly homepage, head to More → Advice in the left sidebar.
From here you can request advice, respond to requests, view your history, and (if you're a manager) give proactive advice to direct reports.
What Advice Is (and How It’s Different from Recognition)
In Bonusly:
Recognition is public or semi-public celebration of great work.
Advice is a private, structured conversation between two people about performance, behaviors, or development.
Key differences:
Advice always has:
One receiver (person the advice is for)
One main giver (person providing the insight)
Both people can follow-up messages once shared.
Advice does not appear in the social feed.
Advice is private and not points-based.
Who Can Use Advice
Everyone can:
Ask for advice
Respond to advice requests
View advice they've received
Managers can also:
Give proactive advice to direct reports
View team advice according to visibility settings
Key Concepts and Terminology
Receiver: The person the advice is for.
Giver: The person providing advice.
Advice request: The prompt you send when asking for advice.
Messages: Entries within an advice thread.
Advice states
Draft: Not yet sent
Waiting for reply: Giver hasn’t responded
Published / Complete: Advice has been shared
Expired: Due date passed with no response
How to Request Advice
Use this flow if you want input from a coworker.
The fastest way:
Go to the homepage.
Click the "Get advice" icon.
Select "Ask for advice from anyone."
Type your request (include a question or two about what you want advice on).
Select the coworker you’re asking.
Click Send request or Save as draft.
You can also:
Go to the left-hand sidebar and click "more"
Click "Advice."
Choose the giver.
Write your request:
What you want advice on
Any specific behaviors, projects, or examples
Click Send request.
Your request will appear as Waiting for reply until the giver responds.
How to Respond to a Request for Advice
You can open a request from any of these places:
Click the link in the email notification
Click Respond on the purple banner notification at the top of your Bonusly homepage
Go to More > Advice > Waiting for reply
To respond:
Select the request.
Review the prompt and any attached context.
Type your response.
Click Share advice or Save as draft.
Your advice becomes visible to the receiver immediately. Both of you can continue the conversation by adding messages to the thread.
How Managers Give Advice
Managers can give proactive advice at any time.
The fastest way:
Click the Advice icon on your homepage and select "Give advice to your direct reports." Choose who you'd like to give advice to, write your insights, and share — or save as a draft. You can also use voice memo, templates, or AI to help shape your message.
You can also:
Navigate to the direct report via "View Team" in the left sidebar.
Click "Advice"
Select "Give insight," "Highlight progress," or "Write your own"
Write your feedback.
Click Save as draft or Share advice.
You'll both be able to see the thread.
Using Filters: For you, From you, Waiting for reply, Draft
On the Advice page, you can sort by:
For you – All advice you’ve received
From you – All advice you’ve written
Waiting for reply – Requests awaiting action
Draft – Advice you’ve started but not sent
Using Voice Transcription and AI
You can use voice transcription and AI to make your message clearer and more natural.
To use it:
Click the microphone icon in the message box.
Dictate your message.
When prompted, click Yes, please! to improve clarity and structure.
You can continue to edit the generated text before sending.
Understanding Advice Visibility
Advice is private, but visibility depends on roles and settings.
Who can see what (at a glance)
Situation | Receiver can see | Giver can see | Receiver’s Manager can see |
A peer gives you advice (not shared with manager) | ✔ Full thread | ✔ Full thread | ✖ No |
A peer gives you advice (you choose to share with manager) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ After advice is shared |
Your manager gives you proactive advice | ✔ | ✔ (manager is giver) | N/A |
Manager views their team’s advice page | — | — | ✔ Only advice where: • They are the giver or • The receiver chose “Share with manager” |
Below are the same rules explained in simple scenario summaries.
Scenario 1: You request advice from a peer (not shared with manager)
Participants:
You (receiver) — can see the full thread
Peer (giver) — can see the full thread
Your manager — cannot see it
Scenario 2: You request advice from a peer and choose “Share with manager”
Participants:
You — see full thread
Peer — see full thread
Your manager — sees the thread after the giver shares their advice
Scenario 3: Your manager gives proactive advice to you
Participants:
You (receiver) — see full thread
Your manager (giver) — see full thread
Appears:
On your Advice page
On your manager’s Team view
Scenario 4: Manager viewing a direct report’s Advice page
A manager sees advice where the direct report is the receiver and either:
The manager is the giver, or
The thread was explicitly shared with manager by the receiver
The “Share with manager” toggle
If you are the receiver, you may see a Share with manager checkbox on published advice.
Toggling it:
On: Adds your manager to the thread’s visibility list
Off: Restricts visibility to only you and the giver
You can change this at any time.
Notifications: What You’ll Receive and When
Notification guide
Bonusly sends notifications to help you keep track of advice requests and responses.
For most Advice actions, users receive:
An in-app notification, and
An email, unless they’ve turned off “constructive advice” emails in their preferences.
You’ll get notifications when:
Someone requests advice from you
Someone shares advice about you
Someone responds to your advice request
A request you sent is nearing its due date (giver gets the reminder)
A request expires
Additional Ways to Give Advice
Go deeper on public recognition
Sometimes Bonusly will automatically recommend an advice request to a public recognition post. This makes it easy for a user to follow up on a moment of praise and ask for additional context or further feedback.
Any advice requested or given continues to be private.
When it happens
Whenever you ask for advice that’s grounded in specific recognition, that context is pulled into the advice request. The relevant recognition post is shown at the bottom of the advice message.
What you can do
Keep it attached to provide context
Remove it by clicking the X on the preview
You can’t browse or pick other recognition to attach.
What the receiver sees
If you leave the recognition attached, the receiver will see a small preview card showing:
Who gave the recognition
When it was given
The recognition text
A link to view the full post
Managing Your Advice Threads
Inside any thread, you can:
Add follow-up messages
Edit drafts
Review past advice
Track timestamps and status
Advice stays accessible as long as you both have active Bonusly accounts.
Need More Help?
Explore related articles on recognition, goals, and 1:1s — or reach out to Bonusly Support for assistance.